Target in bull’s-eye

* Target is feeling the wrath of consumers and national Christian groups, some of which are asking consumers to shop at competing stores like Wal-Mart, in the wake of last January’s decision to ban Salvation Army kettle ringers, who raised $9 million at the retailer’s locations last year, the Boston Globe reported Dec. 2.

* In part to offset losses from Target’s ban of kettle ringers on its properties, the Salvation Army has outfitted some Arizona ringers with credit and debit machines to make giving easier for those without cash, the Associated Press reported Dec. 8.

* Two pieces of legislation designed to stop abuses by nonprofits will be introduced in February or March, two unidentified Senate Finance Committee staff members said, including laws regarding donor-advised funds, credit counseling groups and nonprofits that serve as partners for corporate tax shelters, Tax Analysts reported Dec. 2.

* Most nonprofits raise money by selling or trading donor names, a fact a majority of nonprofits likely don’t want donors to know, watchdog Charity Navigator found in a survey in which almost two in 10 respondents have privacy policies, fewer than one in 10 report selling or sharing names, and three in four did not respond, the Boston Globe reported Dec. 2.

* The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will spend $30 million to develop 42 “early-college high schools,” located mostly on college campuses, to provide some 17,000 students access to college classes and the opportunity to graduate with an associate’s degree or two year’s towards a bachelor’s degree, the New York Times reported Dec. 8.

* Debi Faris-Cifelli, advocate for California’s safe-haven law, which allows parents to abandon babies at certain locations without facing prosecution, and founder Garden of Angels, a cemetery for abandoned newborns, won $27 million in the California lottery, the Associated Press reported Dec. 7.

* British charities must step up their role in providing public services, Labour’s policy chief Alan Milburn said, so they should be able to borrow from the financial markets, charitable schools should be able to bid for taxpayers’ education dollars, and nonprofit hospitals should qualify for National Health Service funding if quality and price thresholds are met, the Telegraph reported Dec. 1.

* A new online database of British charities, britishcharities.com, was launched to raise the profile of smaller nonprofits and to provide them with links to resources such as grant finders, preferred suppliers, sector news and company payroll giving, the Community Newswire reported Dec. 8.